This blog offers resources for 2016 LDS Gospel Doctrine teachers and students, focusing on the context of the scriptures, including geography and historicity. Much of the material comes from these books: Moroni's America, The Lost City of Zarahemla, Brought to Light, and Letter VII: Oliver Cowdery's Message to the World about the Hill Cumorah.

The revealed text

The light of revelation at the Whitmer farm where Joseph and Oliver worked upstairs to finish translating the Book of Mormon

Monday, December 28, 2015

Because the Book of Mormon is the "keystone of our religion," we ought to know where the events took place. The text speaks of covenants associated with the promised land. Where is the promised land? What did Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery have to say about that?

Looking Northeast at the Hill Cumorah (upper right) and the valley in which the Jaredites and Nephites had their final battles. Photo by J. Neville from a drone at 400 feet.

From Moroni's America, p. xi: When we read the Book of Mormon under the light Joseph and
Oliver provided, we see it in a completely new way.

We come to realize that the Gospel was restored where it was lost.

The light of the Gospel was extinguished in the Old World
when the Apostles were killed and the Church fell into apostasy, but that light
endured in the New World until the Nephite civilization was finally destroyed
in New York around 400 A.D. What better place for the restoration of the Gospel
than the scene of its disappearance? And from the New World, the gospel is
taken back to the Old World.

We come to realize that the early history of the Church
paralleled Nephite history, in reverse.

The Nephites were destroyed in New York, so the Church was
established there. The Nephites had been driven from Zarahemla and diminished on their way to Cumorah, so the Church grew on its
way to Zarahemla from Cumorah. Joseph Smith was eventually buried in an ancient Nephite
cemetery in Nauvoo—across the river from
Zarahemla.

Finally, we come to realize that just as the Gospel was
taken from the entire Earth, now it
is spreading to the entire Earth.

And the Book of Mormon is the means for making that
possible.

_____________________________

Questions:1. When we read the Testimony of the Three Witnesses, what were the witnesses testifying of? Read their testimony closely.2. What additional things did these three men testify about? Oliver Cowdery, for example, wrote 8 letters about early Church history. Here's how he introduced them (from Letter VII, p. 4).

That our narrative may be correct, and
particularly the introduction, it is proper to inform our patrons, that our
brother J. SMITH jr. has offered to assist us. Indeed, there are many items
connected with the fore part of this subject that render his labor
indispensable.With
his labor and with authentic documents now in our possession, we hope to render
this a pleasing and agreeable narrative, well worth the examination and perusal
of the Saints.-To do justice to this subject will require time and space:
we therefore ask the forbearance of our readers, assuring them that it shall be founded upon facts. (emphasis added)

In Letter VII, Oliver described the location of the final battles of the Jaredites and the Nephites this way:At about
one mile west rises another ridge of less height, running parallel with the
former, leaving a beautiful vale between. The soil is of the first quality for
the country, and under a state of cultivation, which gives a prospect at once
imposing, when one reflects on the fact,
that here, between these hills, the entire power and national strength of both
the Jaredites and Nephites were destroyed.(Letter VII, p. 14) (emphasis added) Notice that Oliver said this was a fact. It was not speculation, a guess, or a tradition of unknown origin. It is a fact that these final battles took place in New York.

In 2016, the course of study in the LDS Church is the Book of Mormon. Each Monday, this blog will offer suggestions for Gospel Doctrine teachers that correlate to each week's lesson, according to this schedule. The links go to the lessons on lds.org.

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This blog uses the 2016 Gospel Doctrine lessons to look at the Book of Mormon from a faithful perspective, based on a careful analysis of the text and real-world settings. I'm particularly interested in what the text has to say about the location of Book of Mormon events and other aspects of historicity.

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I like the way Daft Punk wear robot suits in public. I'd rather focus on the music than the personalities. Same with Internet discussions; I'd rather focus on the information and the logic of the arguments than the personalities. That said, people want to know I'm a real person, so here's a photo of me at the UN in New York.